It is easy to tell them apart. German, as a nation, apologized for their atrocities. Japanese politicians had apologized as individuals. But Japan had never apologized as a nation as if such apology would negate its martial/Bushido glory.

Japan was not a totalitarian country even in the 1930s and 1940s. Read, for instance, Emil Lederer/State of The Masses: The Threat of the Classless Society and Ben-Ami Shillony/Politics and Culture in Wartime Japan.

I said in my comments on Pro-Syn/Emily Chen/The Surrender of Japan's Peace Constitution, "Only about a quarter of West Germans were pro-Western European. The Unites States and the West had to enlist Adenauer's government by all means to stand on their side in the Cold War and could not afford to bother themselves with the queston of West Germans' contrition or non-contrition. The myth of Japanese non-apologies was disseminated by South Koreans and Chinese after the 1980s like the myth of abducted comfort women issue." You can read some details by a Japanese expert on the comfort women issue at "The Comfort Women Issue in Sharper Focus."You can also read readers' comments on Marshall Wordsworth/Inconvenient Uncomfortable: Transcending Japan's Comfort Women Paradigm, amazon usa. I shall appreciate if you read my (Michi's) comment, American Humanism, on Chinese Comfort Women, amazon usa.

An overwhelming majority of West Germans said, in responding to public opinion surveys in the 1950s and 1960s, that they liked the days of the Nazis and detested the days of the Weimar Republic. They were hungry in the Weimar Republic days but not in Hitler's time; their national pride remained wounded in the former but they could again believe Deuschland uber Alles in der Welt in the Nazi time.

Correct me if I do not remember well; about two hundered Germans and Austrians and some others were put to death in connection with the German atrocities. About nine hundred Japanese were executed for their crimes.

It can be a misleading simplification to divide the Japanese politics into two camps, leftist and rightist, but it can serve very well as an easy-to-understand introduction to those who are usually unfamiliar with Japanese politics. Prof. Buruma's view, as I take it, is much closer to the leftist end.The ruling party is a composite of several factions and views as Piotr. B suggested below.

Abe's and the ruling party's policy in general can only be well understood if geopolitical history Japan has been in is taken into consideration.We say, "Love thy neighbor." But just think who Abe has in his neighborhood,Moon Jae-in, Kim Jong-un, Xi Jinping and Putin. Of these, Moon of South Korea is most irrational.It is perhaps a little too much to expect Abe to just try to be a good Samaritan and love those thuggish ruffians.

Check your facts, dude. Abe(LDP) doesn't have support from two-thirds of the Diet, esp. Councillors, where even with coalition is not enough. As for Trump, Abe snubbed him at first. He visited US during the campaign and meet only with Hillary, being sure Trump would be defeated. So after the election, but before the inauguration, he rushed to the Trump Tower to kowtow, as he has done on several occasions since then. The pacifist dimension of the constitution is largely a formality. Would be changed in a heartbeat, with overwhelming support, when really needed.

The opinion gap between HETTLINGEN's and KINMONTH's is very interesting. Seemingly, the gap comes from the diffrence of information sources, media and real experiences. As a Japanese national living in Japan, KINMONTH's opinion is more realistic than ones of HETTLINGEN and Buruma.

unfortunately the global geopolitical and economic landscape w all the "selfies" and corruption enabled by US administrations until Trump who should be praised by his unselfish and committed ways to straighten out the injustices from an open border here in US allowing criminals to break the law by NOT adhereing to our immigratiin and application process like other sovereign nations who respect their borders....to a China challenged by its economy, yet also consistent in its determination to control Adia and spin off its own Asian curtency less dependent on the US which is their arch rival and let us not forget Uncle Vladimir and his intent to expand and Turkey, a key player to Middle East stability now flexing its power to throw out US military ops and a Germany where we all await Karl Guttenberg to take the reigns from Merkel a nbb d restore German natiomalism and challenge Tehran and our dearest friends, Israel who simply states...no Syria for Iran which will lead to further instability so thank God the good 'ol USA has President Donald J. Trump to tell the Europeans to step up their game and stop this business as usual w Tehran and Russia and put on your big boy pants and stand tall for yourselves as the world stands on the precipice of Wotld War and folks lile Barack Hussein Obama handing Billions in $$ taxpayers dollars to the corfupt finally halted and a President Trump despite all the tainted political agenda by the Dems and the C lintom N ews N etwork....a US undetstanding that the global populace needs to be more creative, independent and stop putting out its hand to government after government corrupted and a debt ridden society that fails to live wirhin its means and unlike the distinguished Donald J. Trump who understands how business should be conducted....a President who sees the Dems w no policy whatsoever to promote American interest other than their own corfupt agenda...

Japan will eventually fall under the Chinese influence and War looms ahead so prepare for a hell of a bumpy ride for humanity was given the rule book via the Bible and instead of following the rules...manmade corrupt rules. adopted and War again....the third WW in 100 years! Shame on you! Grow up and follow the rules as God and his Son, Jesus Christ afforded us Life and its Blessings and Challenges. yet the road to thruth disnissed so easily and a penalty for such arrogant way w Japan and others all destined to fail....

I have two now teenage sons in generic Tokyo public schools. I've not seen any notable change under Abe and because until retirement I was teaching courses in the sociology of education in Japanese to Japanese I track education related issues very closely. Further, as a social historian whose primary field is 1920s-1940s Japan, if there was heat to be felt, I would have felt it or heard about it from others in the same field. I have felt nothing and heard nothing.

Ian Buruma says Japanese nationalists, in particular Shinzo Abe, “need no encouragement” to heed Trump's “America First” slogan, because Steve Bannon had once called the prime minister a “Trump before Trump.” Critics say Abe’s brand of unrepentant, rightwing nationalism reeks of revisionism, a throwback to Japan’s imperial past. He and his reactionary allies are hostile to liberal academics, journalists, and intellectuals. The latter want to uphold the postwar constitution, which is “not just pacifist, but more democratic than anything the country had before, enshrining individual rights, full suffrage, and freedom of expression.” According to the author, postwar democracy in Japan was influenced in the 1950 and 1960s by an intellectual elite that consciously sought to distance their country from its wartime nationalism. Abe and his allies resent that legacy and are trying to revise the pacifist constitution, and to restore pride in its wartime record. They want Japan to break loose from constitutional bonds that have held it in check since 1945 and stand up forcefully for its interests. “But if they do, they will echo the worst aspects of contemporary America – and throw away the best of what the US once had to offer.” Since World War II Japan has benefited hugely from America’s largesse and its security umbrella for protection against communist foes – China and North Korea. “But they deeply resented having to live with a foreign-imposed liberal constitution. Like the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal in 1946, in which foreign judges tried Japan’s wartime leaders, the constitution and all it stands for is seen as a national humiliation.” Buoyed by the nationalist mood sweeping Japanese society since Abe took the helm of the once-pacifist nation, rightwing politicians are increasingly regressing to a militarist path.Japan, like Germany and Italy, were aggressors during World War II. While Rome and Berlin were integrated into postwar institutions like NATO and the precursor of today’s EU, Tokyo “has only the 1960 Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security with the US to protect itself against hostile powers, and the rise of China terrifies the Japanese.” In recent years Japan and China have been embroiled in a territorial dispute over the Senkaku or Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea, and the Japanese have vowed to defend the freedom of navigation there. But trade tensions between the US and most of the rest of the world, and fear of Trump’s tariffs have brought China and Japan closer together in recent months. “From competition to co-existence, Japan and China bilateral relations have entered a new phase,” Abe told reporters in Beijing. His Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping echoed that sentiment saying they should "return to a normal track" of "stable, sustained and healthy" relations. Both sides were eager to put aside their differences and historical grievances in order to boost trade. While Washington's trade war is most prominently fought with China, it also targets many other countries. It must have dawned on Abe that Trump can not be trusted. Indeed, Trump is someone who sees loyalty and benefits as a one-way street. Abe was deeply disappointed that Trump scrapped the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal on his first day in offcie. He was the first foreign leader to meet Trump after his election in November 2016, and he invested a great deal of political capital to overcome strong domestic opposition to the TPP, especially from farmers and the medical lobby.The author is right “in the age of Trump, America is no longer so dependable. This might at least help to concentrate Japanese minds on how to get on in the world without the Americans. But the US has also ceased to be a model of freedom and openness. On the contrary, it has become an example of narrow nationalism, xenophobia, and isolationism.” Perhaps Abe could show Trump that his “Japan First” can be a more civilised approach to defend a country’s interests.

Where is Yoshi, where? "...In some important ways, Japan has benefited greatly from being under America’s wing, and from the postwar constitution, which is not just pacifist, but more democratic than anything the country had before....."

But we, Japan, has spent much effort for the new order in the world without the U.S.For free trade, we have cut a deal of TPP11 and FTA with EU. And now security alliance with many Pan-Pacific countries like Australia, south-east Asian countries is proceeding.At least, isolated nationalism is the last thing Japan is preparing.

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